For this Labor Day edition of Trail Mix, I could focus on this type of work song, but instead, let’s talk about the term “work” and its use in hip hop music.

Note: I’m not about to pretend this is a comprehensive list of the best examples, but maybe this post will inspire you to go down the rabbit hole of music surrounding multi-racial, queer, pan-sexual mash-up culture, which ultimately led me to this. But I’ve getting ahead of myself.

There are a lot of popular artists using the word “work” in their music these days. The most radio-friendly examples include:

Work Bitch – Britney Spears

Work – Ciara ft. Missy Elliott

Get Me Bodied – Beyonce

Work – A$AP Ferg

Work – Iggy Azalea

You may not know that the term “work” has its roots in New York City drag ball culture. Unfamiliar? Head over to Netflix and watch Paris Is Burning, a 1990 documentary film about African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities and balls in the mid to late 1980s.

A preview of the use of “work” in whilst vogueing in Paris is Burning:

Recently, Azealia Banks’s song “Fierce” (featuring Franky Fuentes) includes direct references to (and arguably, celebrations of) Paris Is Burning. This video that mashes “Fierce” with footage of the film makes that point all-too-beautifully clear:

What’s next for “work”? It’s unclear, but in the 15 years that it’s existed in pop culture, it’s evolved from a word contextually exclusive to drag ball culture to represent an idea common in the larger heteronormative environment. For the forefront of the next wave of cultural [r]evolution, perhaps we should look to the rising NYC-based GHE20G0TH1K movement, started by Shayne Oliver and DJ Venus X. This subculture that embraces an uninhibited sense of freedom of expression, and it integrates fashion forerunners, ghetto kids, goths, (Afro)punks and more. In this space, vogueing, hip-hop, and breakdancing combine into a raucous mash-up.

Speaking of raucous mash-ups, check out what DJ Venus X did by combining Britney’s “Work Bitch” with vocals and beats from A$AP Ferg and Tim Dolla: